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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nhan : What is the stigma around the South Side of Chicago?<\/kbd><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf I go anywhere else outside Chicago, people think it\u2019s so bad and that everybody is against each other. I can\u2019t speak for anyone else, but my crew and the people I\u2019m around, we show a lot of love and hold each other up. It\u2019s a lot more togetherness in Chicago than people think. We got a lot of culture here too, we start a majority of the trends and sayings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAlso being from out South we\u2019ll always call the West Side dirty and say they don\u2019t know how to dress. And I guess to a certain extent that is true, but also not. I hadn\u2019t even really been out West until I was like 17 but this past year, 2019, out of the whole city, out West has shown me the most love to be honest. Out West is really on their grind their with music. They have a lot of popping artist like DCG who are some young kids who are like 16-17 going crazy, you got SBG Keemo, Pronto Spazzout, there are just a lot of big faces that have helped me get where I\u2019m at too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n han : Okay, tell me about the first time you picked up a camera.<\/kbd><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe first time I picked up a camera to shoot a video, it wasn\u2019t even a camera, it was an iPhone. And it started with me shooting videos while we were in the basement of my homie DJ Ron Ron\u2019s house. Someone started rapping and I just picked up my phone and started recording. I didn\u2019t really know what I was doing, I just did it. I grew a passion for it and kept going. I was always like that as a kid too and even now. If I have a passion for something I\u2019m focused and I work at it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n han : When was your first time charging for a shoot?<\/kbd><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c The first time I charged for a shoot I was when I was like 15, but it wasn\u2019t no real money. A lot of people don\u2019t realize your\u2019re not going to get anywhere starting off if you charge everybody. One of the realest pieces of advice I can give you is that you gotta work for free to get rich. \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n han : Did you plan on pursuing this at 15? & What advice would you give to your younger-self?<\/kbd><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201d Not at all, to your first question. I was like the funny fat kid school. I also played sports and had dreams of going to the NBA. But the school I was at kind of broke my passion for basketball. I used to be really good at drawing too. There\u2019s a lot of artistic people on my pops side of the family and even though I don\u2019t draw anymore I feel like a lot of that creativity funneled into making videos. \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut advice that I would give to my younger-self would be to do it the exact same way really, I don\u2019t regret anything in life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n han : How did your parents feel about you shooting music videos?<\/kbd><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy pops didn\u2019t believe in me at all with this video stuff. He was a big party promoter in the city when he was younger and he lost a lot of people. It made him stray away from that scene. We even lost a cousin because of the people he was hanging around in the music industry. I understood where he was coming from with that. But now he\u2019s one of my biggest fans.\u201d Will explained smiling really wide. \u201cHe\u2019s big with the youth and my favorite story is the one he told me where when he told his technology class that YoungWill was his son the whole class went crazy. I could tell that made him really happy like \u201cdang my son is really doing this stuff out here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWith my mom she\u2019s like a free spirit. I can talk to her about anything and not feel judged and in the beginning she kind of believed in me but it was just like a\u201cyea boy, gone head\u201d you feel me?\u201c But now everyone sees the bigger picture. They see what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere have been people in my neighborhood that I knew were going to blowup and I\u2019d point them out to my mom and then they\u2019d make it. She would say \u201cdang you really have an eye for this.\u201d I\u2019ve always known good music. Sometimes people focus on what they did instead of what\u2019s next but I\u2019m always worried about tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s another thing thats in cards for me in the future. I really want to use my eye for discovering talent and start to A&R artist which basically means discovering talent. I\u2019m already managing a few people and eventually I want to do a partnership with a label.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut now everyone sees the bigger picture. They see what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p> <\/p>-YoungWill<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n han : Since I\u2019ve met you freshman year I noticed a big change in energies from you, you carry a lot more assuredness about yourself. Where do you think that comes from?<\/kbd><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt comes from the people around me. Freshman year I was going through a lot and this year I\u2019m going through a lot too, but I taught myself to look at things in a different way and not lose sight of the big picture. I\u2019m seeing the end goal now and it makes me move with more confidence. I have older people from by my house telling me they look up to me. The things that I\u2019m doing are inspiring people to turn their life around.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI would say another reason is because I lost a cousin this year, Domo. And he was a close friend that I wanted to see make it out of the hood when I got rich because that\u2019s all he ever really knew. On top of that, he got killed by his best friend and that really messed up my mental. That gives me the motivation to keep going and keep so I don\u2019t have to worry about losing anybody else so I can get everyone else in a better position. Even with the little clout that I have now I can do stuff like put someone on my page who cuts hair, then boom that can give them more clientele.<\/p>\n\n\n\n han : What is your creative process when you\u2019re shooting a video?<\/kbd><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c I do a lot of run and gun shoots which is what I\u2019m known for. Run and gun means you get to the spot, you pull out the camera, and you go. But it depends on who I\u2019m working with and what they want done. If I\u2019m making a video with a whole bunch of people in the crib you\u2019ll know its a YoungWill video because of the way it looks. I\u2019m going to make the crib I\u2019m shooting at look like something else and make every word come to life. I\u2019m very detail oriented. \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n han : What was your most memorable shoot ?<\/kbd><\/p>\n\n\n\n He pauses for a second to think. \u201cI don\u2019t know, I do a lot of shoots.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I can vouch for that statement. Most days if I saw Will in the afternoon it would be a glimpse of him getting into an Uber on his way to a shoot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He continues: \u201cOne that opened my eyeswas when I went to Atlanta to shoot with Calboy. We come from the same area and I\u2019ve watched rise from the bottom up with his rapping and music. I always knew he was going to blow up. And what he came from\u2026\u201d Will shook his head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe\u2019s already on now and has a million followers so when he said to me \u201cdang, boy you\u2019re going crazy, I remember when you were just lil Will. You\u2019re really doing your shit now.\u201d That was a major eye opening moment for me that and showed me how far this is going to take me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n han : You keep talking about seeing \u201cthe bigger picture.\u201d What does the bigger picture mean to you?\u00a0<\/kbd><\/p>\n\n\n\n Will rubs hands together like he\u2019s excited. \u201cWell, you can\u2019t give too much of the sauce away, but eventually I want to move out of Chicago. And Chicago is always going to be home but the bigger picture for me is being able to buy my mom a crib all the way off and putting some of my family who are still in The Garden in a better living situation. I want to build the people around me and make sure they\u2019re doing something productive too that isn\u2019t involved in the streets or anything like that, whether thats barbers, construction workers, or having their own business. \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n han : Do you remember that moment in 2018, the summer before freshman year, when we were all sitting in the lounge and eight out of twelve people in the room agreed that they thought you were going to be the first one to drop out? What was that like and how do you deal with people who underestimate you?<\/kbd><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI just look at it as motivation, honestly. Because when I accomplish what I say I\u2019m going to accomplish, I\u2019m going to do it in the most player way possible AND you\u2019re going to know that I did that.\u201d Will responded smirking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor example, I remember when I was shooting a video at the basketball court by the crib and people would look at me and laugh. Now, if I shoot a video at the basketball court the whole court is going to stop playing to watch me shoot the video.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n han : What are your thoughts about school now?<\/kbd><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy step mom thought I was going to flunk out of college my first year which is crazy because I\u2019ve always been a pretty good student. I graduated a year early in high school so I know I\u2019m doing something right. I just find it funny people don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to do certain things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAlso I\u2019m not the biggest fan of school right now, but one thing I know is that I\u2019m going to finish school for my pops because he\u2019s the one who got me into school and really wants for me to better myself with education. He feels that as a black man you need to get your college degree and even though we don\u2019t always agree on that, I\u2019m going to do it for him. He\u2019s done the utmost for me and he\u2019s always shown me out of anyone that he\u2019s going to ride for me until the end so I\u2019m going to get him this degree.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n \u201cIn 2019 I lost 10 people, Im only 18 and I have more people dead then I have years on this planet. That\u2019s not normal. I wouldn\u2019t choose no other life though, because it\u2019s my life and it gave me the story I\u2019m able to tell you today.\u201d<\/p> \u2013 YoungWill<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n han : Tell me more about Eye of the Trenches:<\/kbd><\/p>\n\n\n\n Eye of the Trenches represents me and my camera. The camera is the eye and the trenches is the hood. But the saying can be for anybody. It\u2019s about striving and making it out. I\u2019ve stepped in every hood in Chicago and I\u2019ve never been in no street nigga, but that\u2019s who I grew up around. I want to see people make it out the trenches.. You can see a million things in the pictures I\u2019ve taken and the stories they tell. Some of them have been on obituaries of people who\u2019ve passed including Domo\u2019s. That\u2019s why I call myself the Eye of the Trenches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n han : When are videos Better<\/span>?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/betterinprint.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/000486620022-1024x679.jpg\")
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